Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Lucy Update

Lucy is so fun to watch as a middle child. She loves following Norah's lead, but also loves helping take care of Jane. She has a big range of emotions and can go from 0 to 1,000 in two seconds, which means we have to be cautious when suggesting anything that might possibly set her off.

She is so snuggly and sweet and loves giving kiss attacks. We'll sneak up on someone, usually Ryan, and yell "KISS ATTACK!" then pound him with kisses.

A few weeks ago, Ryan went to a basketball game with some friends, one of them being a good family friend of ours (Norah named her stuffed frog, Greg, after him, so he's pretty popular here). So when he came over before heading to the game, Lucy was completely twitter pated. She kept telling him over and over, "I love you!" haha it was the cutest thing ever.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Lucy can throw together a pretty mean tantrum. Lately I've been trying to make her happy again by acting silly. She'll try to hit me so I'll dance around the room while she swipes at me, barely missing and laughing. It's probably not the best way to get her out of a bad mood, but it's effective and I've tried lots of other ways that end up poorly.

We've told the girls that we don't use the word "stupid" in our house, and so Lucy, of course, will just yell it whenever she's mad. I've just learned that it's better to ignore it completely than make a big deal of her saying it. It's actually pretty funny to me when she doesn't get her way and just plops down then yells "stupid!" as loud as she can.

She still loves going to preschool, but there have been so many times when we come home and she turns into a big mess of emotions. I try to have both girls go potty as soon as they get home before eating lunch, but they can't possibly wait an extra 40 seconds before getting food, so it turns into a power struggle. The other day, I took her in the bathroom and she absolutely refused to go potty. She just laid down on the rug and cried. I tried to convince her calmly while tickling her back, but then it just turned into her instructing me where she wanted me to tickle next. I was finally able to scrape her off the floor, and I decided to just nix the whole potty-before-lunch thing from then on.

Speaking of the potty, I don't know why boys get a bad rap about using potty talk more than girls, because Lucy LOVES potty talk. She thinks it's so funny to say "poop" and is fascinated with poop in general.

Last month, Ryan's mom came to visit and brought this blue and green fuzzy blanket with her. Mistake number one. Then, over the course of the few days she was here, she let Lucy start to bond with it. Mistake number two. Then, when Jeanne was ready to go back home and tried to take her blanket with her, Lucy of course wouldn't let it out of her sight! Jeanne says she is loaning it to Lucy, but I don't know if she'll ever get it back haha. If I ever try to use it, Lucy acts like I just committed a horrendous crime.

Every night, we change Lucy's diaper before we go to sleep so she won't wet through by morning. She is so used to it that she doesn't even wake up. The other night as Ryan was changing her, he said she was completely zonked out. Then he felt like she was a little too warm, so he tried to switch the blanket to a lighter, cooler one. She immediately opened her eyes and said, "Not that one!" haha

The princess mania is still strong here. We have these hand-me-down nightgowns that Lucy is obsessed with, particularly the Ariel one. Actually, I was surprised to look through my pictures of Lucy and not see more with this nightgown in it since she wears it every day unless it's being washed.

As soon as we get home from preschool, or anywhere, she immediately goes to her room to change into her "Ariel night-down". She refers to the nightgown as a she instead of an inanimate object. For example, if I tell Lucy that I need to wash it, she'll say, "No! She's not dirty, she's clean! I want to wear her!" This happens so much that I find myself personifying the nightgown as well!

If Ariel is dirty, then Lucy resorts to Cinderella, the next best thing. I really want to make some more nightgowns for the girls, but I'm worried that it'll just be the princess dresses situation all over again--After realizing how much Norah and Lucy both loved dressing up, we bought (and were given) some new princess dresses for Norah's birthday and Christmas. But the girls have hardly even worn them since and just go back to wearing the old ratty dresses.